ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 26, 1996 TAG: 9611260114
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has begun an internal investigation of a Roanoke-based drug operation that used Javier Cruz as an informant. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said he expects the Justice Department to issue a public statement about the case soon.
A DEA senior inspector from Washington, D.C., was in Charlotte, N.C., Monday to interview police and the prosecutor who handled the homicide case of Mark Garrett, who was killed by Cruz in 1987. Cruz was arrested four years later on a charge of first-degree murder, but was allowed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter after becoming an informant.
Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said the inspector interviewed him last week about Cruz's arrest on a rape charge last year. That charge was dropped after the woman who made the complaint said she didn't want to proceed with the case.
The investigation is being handled by the DEA's office of inspections to see whether policies and procedures were followed. It is meant as an internal review of the whole operation - beyond just Cruz's involvement - to make sure everything was handled properly and see if there are ways to improve procedures, said James McGivney, chief of public affairs for the DEA.
"It's too early to tell" whether the investigation's findings will be made public, he said.
The senior agent in the Roanoke DEA office, Don Lincoln, has denied a Charlotte prosecutor's statements that the agency asked the prosecutor to drop a first-degree murder charge against Cruz after Cruz became a federal informant.
Mecklenburg County Assistant District Attorney Steve Ward has said that the DEA told him that Cruz's help could lead to "major" arrests and that he agreed to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter in part to help federal agents and to get the case resolved.
Because the DEA was willing to help him by bringing Cruz back to North Carolina to get the Garrett murder case resolved, he was willing to help them, Ward said. Ward also said he would have had a hard time disproving Cruz's claim that he killed Garrett in self-defense.
Ward was scheduled to meet with the DEA inspector Monday afternoon. He could not be reached for comment.
Goodlatte said Attorney General Janet Reno and Bob Crouch, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, plan to make a statement on the Cruz case "shortly." Goodlatte is on the House Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the DEA and all Justice Department agencies.
"I want to see what they have to say publicly before determining what needs to be done. If anything they've said is contradictory, that would concern me," Goodlatte said.
He said he was concerned by the seriousness of the charges Cruz has faced and "the small amount of prosecuting going on as a result of it."
A spokesman for Reno said he did not know of any plans by the attorney general to comment on the case.
U.S. Rep. Melvin Watt, D-Charlotte, N.C., is on the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, which oversees federal drug enforcement. He also expressed concern about the DEA's handling of Cruz.
``It is yet another example of the tremendous discretion the criminal justice system gives to law enforcement officials and prosecutors to pick and choose who to cooperate with and who to prosecute, deciding on their own who the `good guys' are and who the `bad guys' are,'' Watt said.
He said that leads to unfairness and discrimination based on race, class and other factors.
"This unfairness and discrimination undermines the confidence of the public in our justice system," Watt said. "I'm convinced, therefore, that this unbridled discretion must be curbed."
Mark Garrett's mother, Glenda, said DEA Administrator Tom Constantine called her last week and promised to get answers to her concerns. The Garrett family wants to know why Cruz was sentenced for involuntary manslaughter without the family being informed and why Cruz is free five years later.
"It's like we've gone through this tragedy and traumatic experience twice," she said.
Mark Garrett was killed in July 1987. Cruz, a native of Colombia, fled after the shooting and remained a fugitive until 1991, when he was located in Roanoke. He was trafficking Colombian cocaine through his used-car lot on Melrose Avenue Northwest, he acknowledged in a recent interview. He agreed to become an informant for the DEA in a money-laundering investigation after federal agents arrested him on the murder charge.
Cruz served 16 months in and out of the Roanoke County-Salem Jail in 1991 and '92 while working for the DEA and then was released. Garrett's family members said they were assured that although Cruz was convicted of a reduced charge in the homicide, he would end up serving more time on the federal drug charges pending against him.
But Cruz has remained free since 1992, as the DEA's undercover investigation extends into its sixth year.
Since stories about him appeared in The Roanoke Times this month, Cruz and his family have left Roanoke County, according to the DEA. The restaurant that he and his wife ran, Temptations, is still open.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Cruz colorby CNB